


The End

by noandpickles



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Angst, Character Death, Dungeons & Dragons References, Planet Destruction, Suicide, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:07:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27590455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noandpickles/pseuds/noandpickles
Summary: Adran and Auriel return to a place they haven't seen in untold ages. As Adran tries desperately to rescue a slowly cracking future, Auriel enacts her own plan.
Comments: 1





	The End

**Author's Note:**

> This is the end of a story I haven't written yet, which is itself an AU of my first D&D campaign. I don't expect anyone except a few of the people who experienced that campaign to fully understand what's going on here, but I hope it gives the reader enough context clues to enjoy it regardless.

Adran stood, gazing out over the precipice. His robes flowed around him, disturbed by the magical energies that had suffused and sustained his being for these last ten thousand eternities. Far below, the fires burned. Bright enough to cast shadows off his features. His cheeks just too gaunt, his eyes just too sunken. His visage teetering in every way on the edge between refinement and decay.

At his right hand, where she had stood longer than any living being could remember, his Queen. Auriel. Her robes resplendent, glittering as though woven from gemstones. Her staff, the symbol of and conduit for her world-shaping power, resting lightly in her grip. A crown of pure light adorning her brow. All the wealth and splendor of a thousand worlds. And beneath it all, her eyes. Dull. Unfocused.

Dead.

"It is strange, returning here." Adran spoke casually, the melody of his three voices interwoven as one. "After all this time, I'd almost forgotten the look of this world from so far above. It will be even stranger, walking upon its surface again."

"Yes." Auriel wondered if he would notice, when she carried out her final plan. If he did not feel the pull, would he know anything was wrong? Was there anything left to miss?

In one small corner of one insignificant landmass, the flames sputtered for a moment, then sparked and surged violently, overtaking more of the planet's surface.

"Ah, I had wondered how long they could hold out. Was that… What was the name? Cadren? I think the geography's right. Still, I wouldn't expect such a backwater nation to have produced such magical skill. Their wards held for more than a minute."

"Yes." She hoped he would know. This surprised her. It had been so long since she had hoped for anything. Was it spite? Did she simply want him to look upon her lifeless face, and know that he had failed? That even his endless efforts couldn't keep her locked in his grasp? She held the image in her mind for a moment.

Auriel shifted her grip on her staff, and the flames sputtered again. The movement was unnecessary; She had long since outgrown the need for gestures and incantations when enacting her will. Her subtle nudge had the desired effect: The tiny speck of land that had held out for so many seconds reappeared, the destruction pushed back almost imperceptibly. The difference was miniscule, floating as they were so high above the world, but it was enough.

Adran blinked, surprised. "These insects are hardier than I expected. No matter. Soon, all will be cleansed, and we can set to work. It will be good to work again, won't it, love? To build and create, on this of all worlds?" Here, a note of desperation cracked into one of his voices. The endless death rattle of the Lich God went on unaffected, and the deep, resonant tones of the High Fiend still exuded pure confidence. But the high, somewhat nasal voice of a young man from Velanir seemed to strain with the hope that someone would soothe his insecurities. It was a sound unbecoming of a god.

"Yes," Auriel said again, allowing real hope to tinge her endless monotone. She immediately chided herself, worried that she had given herself away. But Adran simply smiled, the slight tension leaving his face, and Auriel allowed the wave of tension to ebb from her mind, as well. He had mistaken her excitement at the fruition of her plot for interest in his vision. This was good.

Her mistake past, Auriel recaptured her train of thought. She pictured Adran, her love, her god, her jailer, wandering the newly lifeless surface of a world they once knew. She imagined her shambling corpse in tow, held together by the selfsame forces that had kept her here for so long, matching the lifeless disinterest she now showed, nothing more than an automaton. She worried her corpse would play the part too well. She worried that Adran's desperation would blind him to the fact that he was now, for the first time in his endless existence, alone.

Worry. She was surprised to find that emotion when she pictured this future. She was surprised she still had the capacity to worry at all. But she did. Despite everything, all the worlds, all the lives, all the eons, she still had enough love for the scared little elf boy hiding inside the god's robes to wish for him an end to his self-delusion. And so she worried, and she hoped, as the two go hand in hand.

Adran's brow furrowed as he scowled. "What blasphemies have they discovered in our absence, that allow them to hold against me for so long?" The speck of unburned land far below still stood, resisting the world-killing fire as the seconds ticked by. Auriel felt the drain on her own power. She couldn’t sustain the shield for long. She could only pray it would be long enough.

Time passed, the shield held, and Auriel grew weak. She held her regal posture, not twitching a muscle. Even on the verge of collapse, she knew that her plan would fail if she displayed any outward sign of her spellwork, so she showed nothing.

Impatient and enraged, Adran tugged the glove from his right hand. "These mortals will know what it means to defy me." As he spoke, he extended his hand over the edge of the balcony, hand flat, palm down. His voices split as he spoke three words in three tongues at once. A beam of pure destructive energy burst from his hand, streaking down toward the spot where once stood a humble village, nestled between the sea and the forest.

Auriel caught her breath in anticipation, praying to a dead god that her spell would work as intended. Adran's wrath struck the shield, shattering it instantly. The excess force ate away at Auriel's life force as her spell redirected its energies to her, the shield's caster. Adran's power ravaged her deathless form, shattering the unbreakable chains binding her to life. The world went dark. Her plan had worked.

Auriel Duir was dead.


End file.
